Former Lubbock Youth Pastor Arrested for Lewd Assault of a Child

LUBBOCK, TX— A youth pastor from a Lubbock area church has been arrested for sexual assault of a child.

Luke Cunningham, 41, was arrested on Wednesday, June 19, in Shallowater by U.S. Marshals for Sexual Assault of a Child.

In an email, Turning Point Community Church said:

To our Church Family,

On, Monday, June 3, Turning Point was contacted by Senior Pastor Mark Forrest of Lakeside Baptist Church of Granbury, Texas to inform us that a recent staff member at Lakeside, and a former staff member at Turning Point, Luke Cunningham, was being reported to local police and Child Protective Services regarding accusations of inappropriate conduct and alleged sexual abuse with minors.

During Lakeside Baptist Church's own investigation of allegations, they learned of potential victims during Luke's time of service at Turning Point. They have properly reported those allegations to the Lubbock Police Department.

Turning Point has been in contact with the Lubbock Police since Tuesday June 6, and is in full cooperation with their investigation.

As requested by LPD, Turning Point has not made any public statements so as not to hinder or disrupt the investigation.

From 2016-2020, Luke Cunningham served as Student Pastor at Turning Point. While Luke served on our staff, we received no complaints, no allegations, nor had any suspicion of wrongdoing.

All allegations that are surfacing have been brought to our attention after Luke's employment, not during or before. Currently, we have no information about these alleged incidents, no names, no descriptions of these events. We are awaiting further details from LPD.

To be clear, Turning Point's leadership had no awareness of these alleged abuses during Luke's time of serve nor had any knowledge of allegations of previous misconduct in other churches prior to serving at Turning Point.

We are devastated by these allegations and feel enormous grief for anyone who is a potential victim. Our hope is to provide any assistance we can offer to any victims of sexual abuse to find the metal, physical, emotional, and spiritual peace needed to heal and move forward.

We condemn any actions of sexual misconduct and certainly assault of any person, especially those under our care.

If you have been a victim or have any information that would prove help to LPD in their investigation, please contact and report what you know.

To the church family of Turning Point, as elders and leaders we want to assure you that we have detailed written guidelines and operating procedures that specifically address the highest expectations of integrity for our pastors in our care for people.

What we have learned is devastating and reinforces our determination to secure all ministries, church environments, and pastoral relationships so that they are without any issues of concern.

As elders and leaders, it is our desire and intention to guide our church through this difficulty with as much clarity, transparency, and communication as we can offer. Until we have further information to share publicly, if you need to speak with our elder team, you can come to us in person, or you can call the church office to schedule appointments to discuss anything further.